As long as your goals are important to YOU then that's all that matters

The Ontario Ultra Series (OUS) came to close this past Saturday with the Vulture Bait trail race. Unfortunately I didn't participate in as many races as last year, but I was able to fulfill my goal of completing a 50K trail race in Haliburton.

As the weather starts to turn cold and the races become harder and harder to find, I have to set my goals on other things besides races. Sure, there may be a race or two that I'll do between now and the Spring but they'll mostly be for fun. I realized this past summer that I truly belong running trail races as I don't have to worry about how fast I'm going. The competitive side of me will always want to try and do a little better than the previous year but if that doesn't happen it won't bother me.

My goals are just to be able to run, injury free, at least 5 times per week. I'd like to average between 60 to 70 KM's per week and work on improving my endurance. By next spring I'd like to complete a 50 mile trail race, most likely Sulphur Springs, and that will require an increase in training mileage after the New Year.

During my run today I realized that I won't be able to run much longer in just shorts and a long sleeve technical shirt and that always tends to bring me down. As much as some of my running friends prefer to run in this type of weather, I actually hate it. My hands tend to get cold almost immediately and I'm bundled up like the Michelin Man where all you can see is my eyes peering out from under my thermal headgear.

This will be my third year running in the winter and as much as I hate the cold, if I can keep running 5 days per week then I'll be happy.

Whatever your goals are, all that matters is that they are important enough to YOU to keep going hard after them. If you are ambivalent about your goals you will never achieve them. I like to vocalize my goals to whoever will listen to me as this helps to keep me focused. You also have to realize that your achivements should never be measured up against anyone else.

You don't have to achieve a certain time goal to qualify as a "runner" and I think that's what so many people get caught up in. Shouldn't the fact that you run be good enough? I'm using running as an example because it is something that I'm familiar with, but this same theory can be applied to just about anything. Don't be one of those people who are afraid to take on your goals because you don't think that you measure up to someone else. In the end, the only person that it matters to is yourself.